To track some personally noteworthy events, observations and thoughts, letting them age and savor/regret them again a long time later.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

When Meritocracy Ends, Relationships Take Over

This post is for my kids.

This is a picture of what happens when meritocracy is done.

The superior system begins with a meritocracy but in the end it is who you know that is more important. It's the same everywhere including Singapore. I first felt it when I was a young executive at Shell. Within five years you must join a clique and more important the right godfather. In China's case, Jiang Zemin was their grand daddy. You bet with Hu Jintao, you don't do as well.

In my case, I was not enamored with any Shell clique. I chose to leave. It is best not to publicly go into the reasons why.